Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) expects second half capital spending to improve by 47.3 percent compared to the first half of the year, the firm said.

Chip industry capital equipment spending will rebound in 2010, when revenue is forecast to increase 34.3 percent to $30.7 billion, Gartner said. All segments of the market are expected to grow in 2010, the firm said.

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"Equipment purchases for the remainder of 2009 and the first half of 2010 will be mostly technology buys, as memory companies get ready for copper implementation, and double patterning for critical geometries in the 5x nm and 4x nm generations," said Dean Freeman, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement.

In July, Gartner forecast that 2009 capital spending to decline by 44.8 percent to $24.3 billion. The firm had earlier in the year projected that semiconductor industry capital spending would amount to only $16.9 billion for 2009.

Wafer fab equipment spending is expected to decrease 48.8 percent to about $16 billion in 2009, Gartner said. The firm said it expects equipment spending in 2010 to grow by 38.3 percent, reaching $22.2 billion.

Spending on packaging and assembly equipment, is forecast to decrease 43.1 percent to $2.3 billion in 2009, then increase 40.5 percent to $3.2 billion in 2010, Gartner said. The recovery for packaging and assembly equipment began in the second quarter of this year as the market bounced off its sharp correction in the fourth quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, Gartner said.

Automated test equipment (ATE) spending is on pace to decline 36.5 percent in 2009 to $1.6 billion, Gartner said. After falling substantially for several quarters, the ATE market recovered in the second quarter of this year, Gartner said. Growth is expected to continue over the next several quarters as device demand improves, the firm said. Gartner projects that ATE spending will rise to $2.2 billion in 2010.

Gartner is offering a report on capital spending for sale through the firm's website.